FIRE intervenes to protect a professor's right to post a Nietzsche quote, even though it offended religiously-oriented students. Good for FIRE and good for Temple for its quick response and recognition of the value of free speech even when it offends others. Story here and FIRE press release here.

Update:

Several commentators noted that I should have been more clear to note that this was Temple College in Temple, Texas, not Temple University. Sorry for any misunderstanding.

I agree with TZ, and also with Steve. I thought we were talking about the public U. in Philly as well.

But we need to add an exception: Let's call it the "Hoosier Corollary". It provides that officials may remove any posted comment from any location in the university which espouses a quote or idea of Neitzsche's, but which spells his name wrong.

That might run to 75-80% of them. But it provides us all a "teachable moment."

So when he started at Temple, he put a cartoon up showing Smokey the Bear, a girl scout and a boy scout and the tag line: “Kids — don’t fuck with God or bears will eat you.”

Note that the premise for this cartoon is perfectly sound in its scriptural basis. Second Kings:

23 Then he went up from there to Bethel; and as he was going up by the way, young lads came out from the city and mocked him and said to him, “Go up, you baldhead; go up, you baldhead!” 24 When he looked behind him and saw them, he cursed them in the name of the LORD. Then two female bears came out of the woods and tore up forty-two lads of their number. 25 And he went from there to Mount Carmel, and from there he returned to Samaria.

I think Elisha should be played by Samuel L. Jackson in the movie, Pulp Scripture.

The problem with Nietzsche is that the context of his quote is often misunderstood, and many people who bandy it about wouldn't do so if they understood where old Fred was really coming from when he penned it. I hate to quote Wikipedia, but [until somebody vandalizes it, at least] there's actually a good, concise description in Nietzsche's entry:

"Nietzsche claimed the 'death' of God would eventually lead to the loss of any universal perspective on things, and along with it any coherent sense of objective truth. Instead we would retain only our own multiple, diverse, and fluid perspectives. This view has acquired the name "perspectivism". Alternatively, the death of God may lead beyond bare perspectivism to outright nihilism, the belief that nothing has any importance and that life lacks purpose."

On another issue: Temple College is a public junior college in Texas. As a public institution, it obviously cannot infringe on speakers' First Amendment rights. Temple University in Philthydelphia (that spelling is correct, just ask any Steelers fan) is a hybrid institution that receives some state funding but is not technically a state university and remains under independent administrative control. Which would raise some interesting questions about the extent to which the First Amendment actually can be enforced against TU, had this occurred there.

Oh, wait, no. That second sign could be seen as an endorsement of religion in a public institution, and therefore in violation of the Establishment Clause. Horrors!

I always wondered what about "Nietzsche is dead - God" was so compelling to Christians. Did Nietzsche ever claim he wouldn't die?

More importantly, did God actually write a book announcing the death of Nietzsche? Did He hold a press conference? No? Then you're telling me a mortal man wrote "Nietzsche is dead - God"? So Nietzsche was right all along.

Sorry to break it to you. But all morality that is incumbent upon us comes from God (envisioned in whatever way), or else it is meaningless.

Which sucks for those of us who want to believe, but don't. Because, y'know, I'd kind of like to think that there's some Greater Purpose served when I refrain from kicking many of my colleagues in the balls.

Which sucks for those of us who want to believe, but don't. Because, y'know, I'd kind of like to think that there's some Greater Purpose served when I refrain from kicking many of my colleagues in the balls.

...sucks for those of us who want to believe, but don't. Because, y'know, I'd kind of like to think that there's some Greater Purpose served when I refrain from kicking many of my colleagues in the balls.

LOL! Too bad it's too early to declare a winner of this thread, but based on the early exit polls, Hoosier's got a strong lead.

But from having read your posts on past threads, Hoosier, I strongly suspect your colleagues' tender parts will remain safe, regardless of the source of your personal belief system. And I won't go into the extent to which ball-busting (either literal or figurative) has been carried out in the name of various religions over the last several thousands of years.

Yes, the old testament viewed sodomy as much worse than hetero-rape. But dad was still a vile man for failing to recognize the difference between sins of omission and commission (i.e., trading his daughters for the safety of his male guests).

Obviously, someone has not taken the time to read that passage in The Joyful Wisdom. For those who have never read the passage, but often use the quote, "God is Dead", without understanding for a moment Nietsche's intent, here it is:

The Madman

Have you not heard of that madman who lit a lantern in the bright morning hours, ran to the market-place, and cried incessantly: "I am looking for God! I am looking for God!"

As many of those who did not believe in God were standing together there, he excited considerable laughter. Have you lost him, then? said one. Did he lose his way like a child? said another. Or is he hiding? Is he afraid of us? Has he gone on a voyage? or emigrated? Thus they shouted and laughed. The madman sprang into their midst and pierced them with his glances.

"Where has God gone?" he cried. "I shall tell you. We have killed him - you and I. We are his murderers. But how have we done this? How were we able to drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What did we do when we unchained the earth from its sun? Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving now? Away from all suns? Are we not perpetually falling? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there any up or down left? Are we not straying as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is it not more and more night coming on all the time? Must not lanterns be lit in the morning? Do we not hear anything yet of the noise of the gravediggers who are burying God? Do we not smell anything yet of God's decomposition? Gods too decompose. God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we, murderers of all murderers, console ourselves? That which was the holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet possessed has bled to death under our knives. Who will wipe this blood off us? With what water could we purify ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we need to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we not ourselves become gods simply to be worthy of it? There has never been a greater deed; and whosoever shall be born after us - for the sake of this deed he shall be part of a higher history than all history hitherto."

Here the madman fell silent and again regarded his listeners; and they too were silent and stared at him in astonishment. At last he threw his lantern to the ground, and it broke and went out. "I have come too early," he said then; "my time has not come yet. The tremendous event is still on its way, still travelling - it has not yet reached the ears of men. Lightning and thunder require time, the light of the stars requires time, deeds require time even after they are done, before they can be seen and heard. This deed is still more distant from them than the distant stars - and yet they have done it themselves."

It has been further related that on that same day the madman entered divers churches and there sang a requiem. Led out and quietened, he is said to have retorted each time: "what are these churches now if they are not the tombs and sepulchres of God?"

Obviously, someone has not taken the time to read that passage in The Joyful Wisdom. For those who have never read the passage, but often use the quote, "God is Dead", without understanding for a moment Nietsche's intent, here it is:

The Madman

Have you not heard of that madman who lit a lantern in the bright morning hours, ran to the market-place, and cried incessantly: "I am looking for God! I am looking for God!"

As many of those who did not believe in God were standing together there, he excited considerable laughter. Have you lost him, then? said one. Did he lose his way like a child? said another. Or is he hiding? Is he afraid of us? Has he gone on a voyage? or emigrated? Thus they shouted and laughed. The madman sprang into their midst and pierced them with his glances.

"Where has God gone?" he cried. "I shall tell you. We have killed him - you and I. We are his murderers. But how have we done this? How were we able to drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What did we do when we unchained the earth from its sun? Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving now? Away from all suns? Are we not perpetually falling? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there any up or down left? Are we not straying as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is it not more and more night coming on all the time? Must not lanterns be lit in the morning? Do we not hear anything yet of the noise of the gravediggers who are burying God? Do we not smell anything yet of God's decomposition? Gods too decompose. God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we, murderers of all murderers, console ourselves? That which was the holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet possessed has bled to death under our knives. Who will wipe this blood off us? With what water could we purify ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we need to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we not ourselves become gods simply to be worthy of it? There has never been a greater deed; and whosoever shall be born after us - for the sake of this deed he shall be part of a higher history than all history hitherto."

Here the madman fell silent and again regarded his listeners; and they too were silent and stared at him in astonishment. At last he threw his lantern to the ground, and it broke and went out. "I have come too early," he said then; "my time has not come yet. The tremendous event is still on its way, still travelling - it has not yet reached the ears of men. Lightning and thunder require time, the light of the stars requires time, deeds require time even after they are done, before they can be seen and heard. This deed is still more distant from them than the distant stars - and yet they have done it themselves."

It has been further related that on that same day the madman entered divers churches and there sang a requiem. Led out and quietened, he is said to have retorted each time: "what are these churches now if they are not the tombs and sepulchres of God?"

Hoosier: Damn right. Those who did their undergrad philos training out of the Walter Kauffman translations in the early '70's will recall (not even "sophomoric", more, well, "freshmanic") undergraduate mirth at the juxtaposition of "The Gay Science" with the following volume, "Ecce Homo".

G.E.B., btw, was only revelatory to those raised for several years on a diet of Martin Gardner columns....

Goethe, replying to the "God is Dead" bit said, "What horror shall then befall the superman!"

Jung points out that in his experience, repressed sexual desire generally manifests as a will to power, thus at the same time negatively portraying Nietzsche and also applying Nietzsche's own question ("what does the philosophy say about the philosopher") with deadly accuracy....

The thing I found most disturbing about this case was that from his email messages, the vice president of this college appears to be semi-literate. Look at what he wrote:

Temple College as a public institution cannot be represented as showing preference toward any religious philosophy/perspective or toward the opposite, being atheism. The same practice goes for politics. The decision to have the quote removed was that the quote can be considered very controversial and offensive to others.

FIRE also quotes a message from him that reads, "Simply posting a cartoon or note on a door that can be considered offensive, insightful [sic], and/or controversial is not a part of academic freedom and does not reflect well on Temple College...." A cartoon that is insightful? I suspect he means inciting, but I'm not sure. These are not just the usual email typos we all make; they are signs of marginal literacy in someone identified as the chief academic officer of this college.

It has always thrilled me a little bit when fundies quote the "Nietzsche is dead" jab, failing to realize that Nietzsche was saying vibrantly the same thing that their pastor banally drones on about each Sunday morning.

R Gould-Saltman (mail):
Hoosier: Damn right. Those who did their undergrad philos training out of the Walter Kauffman translations in the early '70's will recall (not even "sophomoric", more, well, "freshmanic") undergraduate mirth at the juxtaposition of "The Gay Science" with the following volume, "Ecce Homo".

They were still in use in the late '80s, when I was studying philosophy. And also reading Nietzsche in phil courses for some reason. "I bring you the Overman!" Swell, Walter.

Even worse were the Straussian translations of Plato: "What you say is very fine, Socrates." Um, yeah.

And of course we all know that Ecce Homo is simply Latin for "Behold the Homo."

einhverfr

Goethe was brilliant, but I doubt he had a time machine. What's the source of that quote? I can't find it.

He's talking about Chuck Goethe and Jung Li, they used to sit next to me in Existentialism 101. Chuck always talked that way, you should have heard him order at Wendy's: "Let us quench our glowing passions in the depths of sensuality: two frosties shall forthwith replace the vile sorcery of common fizzed water in those Old Fashioned Combos Number Two. Oh, believe me Jung Li, no human being digests the old leaven, these Combos are made for a god!"

In addition to being a great writer, Hofstadter is a great guy. I had forgotten to bring my copy of his book to one of his lectures, and when I mentioned this to him, he gave me his phone number, told me to call him the next day, and he would sign my book. He ended up signing a copy for me, one for my girlfriend, and piece of paper for a student in one of my lab sections, and then giving me 20 minutes of advice and stories about academia. I reciprocated by introducing him to xkcd :)

In any case, all this Walter Kauffman talk has me concerned. I read most of Kaufman's translations in the early nineties and, as my previous experience with Freddy were the early twentieth-century translation efforts, Kauffman has always been a hero of mine. Has he gone disco? Who am I supposed to be reading these days?